The two men, both in their 30s and from the Paris suburb of Seine-Saint-Denis, are suspected of being part of a criminal network. One of them was arrested at Charles de Gaulle airport on Saturday evening as he was about to board a plane to Algeria.
A total of four people were directly involved in the robbery, two of whom are still at large. However, the prosecutor does not rule out that more people were involved in planning the spectacular coup.
The prosecutor also says that the step van used in the robbery was stolen on October 10 and that after the robbery, the perpetrators tried to set the vehicle on fire to cover their tracks.
French police have previously testified to “major shortcomings” in security at the Louvre. Paris police chief Patrice Faure spoke of outdated systems and too-slow improvements when he was heard in the French Senate.
A promised renovation with 60 kilometers of new cabling will not be completed until 2029 at the earliest. Now parts of the video network are analog, according to the police chief, who also revealed that the first alarm to the police did not come from the museum's own alarm system but from a cyclist passing outside.
The cyclist saw a man wearing a helmet on the step car that the thieves had left outside the museum and called the police.
